Day 2: Il mercato centrale

Mercato Centrale

Morning I was woken up early because of construction right outside my window. Was not pleased but at least I got an early start to my day! As an apartment, we all went to the Mercato Centrale just to explore because it is just a 5-6 minute walk. Entered the market through all of the leather street shops where the vendors harass you to no end. Mercato Centrale is such a maze! There are a million shops that sell the same things so it is easy to accidentally walk in a circle several times without realizing it. We all went in on some fancy balsamic vinegar made on a family farm outside of Italy. I also bought some truffle infused olive oil to dip this massive loaf of bread in. The bread was only 1.40 Euros! Still amazed at how cheap groceries are here – it makes me want to shop for groceries everyday. We walked upstairs to see the nicer vendors that resembled a food court. On the way home we resisted buying anything from the street vendors… but Molly and I planned to go back later when we had more time.

Admiring the ponchos on the street

Quick selfie in the markets

Upstairs is similar to a food court

Delicious looking sandwiches I am going to copy

Polenta fries

Ciabbata for €1,40

Put together a quick lunch at home consisting of a prosciutto and provolone sandwich and carrots before heading to the most boring orientation meeting ever. The most exciting part about the orientation meeting was that we got lost on the way there and found a 99cent store to get some hangers from.

After the orientation meeting we hit the 99cent store and snuck over to the leather market again. I bought an awesome scarf with La Visione by Dante cover on it. The vendor had a bunch of other scarves with famous artworks on them and I might have to go back and get more because they were so unique! We started getting used to the vendors shouting at us by the time we left.

Afternoon

After getting back to the apartment I had some downtime before the free welcome dinner by LdM so I finally had a good chunk of time to facetime Tommy! It was nice to catch up with him because it has been hard to talk with the time change especially because he tends to sleep in. Afterwards, I took a nice shower and the temperature stayed pretty constant this time.

We went to the welcome dinner and it was in a beautiful banquet hall! It was called Palazzo Borghese. Way too fancy for the hundreds of student that were there eating cold buffet food. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful – wine and friends.

Last minute thoughts – none. I forgot to write about my day at the end so this was delayed and I don’t remember as much. I learned my lesson: Need to write down the good stuff as it happens.